Join us at Laurier

Becoming a Golden Hawk means more than just cheering on our (really good) varsity teams – it means being a student who cares about your community, who works hard in the classroom, and who takes advantage of all the learning opportunities that can happen outside the classroom, too.

Biography / Academic Background

I received my PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Victoria, BC in 2000. I also hold a DSc degree in Astronomy from the Romanian Academy of Sciences (1997) and a BSc in Mathematics and Mechanics from the University of Bucharest (1991).

Prior to joining Laurier, I was a lecturer at Imperial College London (2004-2005), a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Surrey, UK (2003-2004), a visiting assistant professor at Texas Tech (2002) and research associate at University of Victoria (2000-2002).

Research Interests / Ongoing Projects

The focus of my research is on the role of symmetry in dynamical systems (ODEs and PDEs), in particular in classical mechanics, with applications in celestial mechanics, astrodynamics, rolling bodies, ideal fluids. I use analysis, algebra, differential geometry, topology and numerics, depending on the scope and need.

Recently I become interested in data science, specifically, functional and shape data analysis. It is a cool combination of functional analysis, geometry and statistics, and the field of applications is practically limitless.

My main and long-time research partner is Tanya Schmah (UOttawa). I am also collaborating with colleagues from Brazil, Mexico, Romania, Spain, UK and US.

Student Opportunities / Supervising

I have Research Assistantships opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students interested in applied mathematics. Current projects are in vortex dynamics (simpler models of hurricanes), dynamics of space and underwater vehicles, and various models of n-body problems. Contact me for more information.